Extremist group Boko Haram frees hostages

 
Boko Haram freed two dozen hostages after a mass abduction by its militants in Cameroon, as Chad prepared Monday to engage in the international battle against the extremist group.

Twenty-four of the 80 people taken hostage by Boko Haram in the north of Cameroon Sunday were released as Cameroonian armed forces pursued the Islamist extremists, according to a government source.

The Boko Haram fighters then fled back into Nigeria, with the fate of the rest of the hostages taken in the raid still unknown.

An army officer based in Cameroon's Far North region said Boko Haram had attacked two villages and kidnapped what Cameroonian state media said were 80 hostages, in one of the group's biggest abductions outside Nigeria yet.

Three people also died in the assault.

As the militants retreated, the Chadian army said it was putting 400 military vehicles, attack helicopters, and a still unspecified number of soldiers amassed in northern Cameroon into action against Boko Haram, as part of a regional effort to defeat the notoriously violent group.

"We are going to advance (Monday) towards the enemy," Chadian army colonel Djerou Ibrahim, who is leading the offensive against Boko Haram, told AFP from the strategic crossroads town of Maltam in northern Cameroon.

"Our mission is to hunt down Boko Haram, and we have all the means to do that."

But Cameroonian Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary warned the armies of the two nations still had considerable planning to complete before being able to launch offensives against Boko Haram.

"Military planners must evaluate the forces being coordinated and coalesced," he said. "That takes time."

Chadian President Idriss Deby has clearly stated his determination to re-capture the strategic town of Baga in northeastern Nigeria, which Boko Haram stormed in murderous attacks in early January.

A screengrab from video showing Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

'Crimes against humanity'

Witnesses recounted terrifying scenes of violence -- and the abduction by Boko Haram of what some said were more than 500 women and children -- which French President Francois Hollande and US Secretary of State John Kerry described as "crimes against humanity".

According to Amnesty International, the attack of Baga was "the biggest and most destructive" by Boko Haram since it launched its campaign in 2009 to create a caliphate in the region, which observers say has claimed at least 13,000 lives and driven an estimated 1.5 million people from their homes.

"The attack by Boko Haram on the border town of Baga is the latest in a long series of atrocities killing hundreds and displacing thousands of innocent people," European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement Monday.

"Increasingly frequent attacks, notably into Cameroon, demonstrate that the threat from Boko Haram has taken on a regional dimension."

Chad has thus far been spared attack by Boko Haram, but only a thin sliver of land in northern Cameroon separates the desert state from the Islamists' stronghold in Nigeria's Borno state.

Chad has also been affected by the refugee crisis sparked by Boko Haram's insurgency, and Deby has warned he will "not stand idly by" as the extremists enlarge their field of activity.

Nigeria, which has been unable to halt Boko Haram on its own, expressed its conditional support of Chadian soldiers eventually being deployed on its soil.

"All backing of our operations will be welcomed, but that must conform to operations we already have under way, given those are on Nigerian territory," said Nigerian army spokesman Chris Olukolade.

The leaders of Ghana and Germany, who met in Berlin on Monday, supported using EU money to help fund a regional African force to battle the Islamists.

"I believe it is right to choose African troops for this task but it is our common interest that we sustainably finance such a force," Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters.

Ghanian President John Dramani Mahama said "it would be very important if our partners could join in terms of how we finance that force".

AFP

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26 Boko haram members killed in Cameroon, others escape to Nigeria

26 members of Boko Haram were reportedly killed in an ambush by Cameroonian soldiers at Moza-Wara in Cameroon yesterday January 4th. Cameroonian investigative journalist Chief Bissong Etahoben said other militants who survived the attack escaped to Northern Nigeria

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TRAGIC!! AirAsia flight found upside down at the bottom of the sea, passengers found holding hands

Indonesian search officials have now confirmed they have located the fuselage of AirAsia flight 8501 on sonar radar, upside down on the sea floor, not far from where three of the bodies from the doomed AirAsia flight were found holding hands when discovered floating in the Java Sea. Officials from Basarnas, Indonesia's search and rescue agency, say the plane wreckage has been located in 24 to 30 metres of water and one of the seven confirmed recovered bodies was wearing a life jacket. 

Lieutenant Airman Tri Wobowo, who was co-piloting Indonesia's C130 Herclues aircraft, was the first to discover debris from the plane and witnessed the tragic scene. 

'There were seven to eight people. Three of them held hands,' he told a local newspaper. 

A plane door, a blue suitcase, oxygen tank and the remnants of an emergency slide were among the objects found about 10km from where the plane was last detected on radar. But the most harrowing discoveries were the corpses floating in the Java Sea - about 100 miles off the coast - and search chiefs fully expect none of the 162 passengers and crew on board made it out of the wreckage alive.

Family members who have been at the airport since the crash happened on Sunday December 28th, are expected to come forward to identify the remains of their loved ones.

Source: UK Daily Mail

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Photos of the teenager shot dead by police in St. Louis yesterday

This is the 18 year old young man who was shot dead yesterday Dec. 23rd by a police officer at a gas station not far from where Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. But the police say this is a totally different case because Antonio Martin had a gun and pointed it at 34yr old unnamed officer, who pulled out his own gun and shot three times, killing Antonio.

 

Antonio pictured above pointing a gun at the police officer as the officer responded to a call of a theft in the area. The police officer fired three shots, one hitting the teen. Antonio, who didn't fire his weapon, was pronounced dead at the scene by responding EMS officers. 

During a press conference later, the police said Antonio was known to them and had previous charges including three assaults, armed robbery, armed criminal action and multiple uses of weapons since he was 17.

 His mother wails at the scene of the incident

His body being taken away

Protests quickly erupted at the scene of Antonio's shooting...

Photo credit: AP

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Photos of Jordanian F-16 pilot captured in Syria by ISIS

Here's a sad photo of Jordanian pilot who was captured by ISIS militants after his warplane was shot down while he was conducting airstrikes over Syria. ISIS shared photos of his capture on Twitter

Jordanian Information Minister Mohammad Momani told AP that First Lieutenant Mu'ath Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh's plane was shot down by 'ground fire'. This is the first time a foreign soldier will fall into ISIS hand since the U.S-led coalition began its air campaign against the extremists. 

The 27 year old pilot is said to be from a prominent Jordanian family. His family said Mu'ath felt it was a religious duty to fight ISIS because they were 'distorting the true spirit of Islam'. His family has publicly begged for mercy, asking ISIS to release him but that's probably not going to happen..

ISIS are now reportedly in possession of MANPADS - shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles

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black teen killed by white police officer in St. Louis

Looks like all the protest isn't working because another black teen has been killed by police. The 18 year old was killed outside a gas station in Berkeley, Mo., about 2 miles west of Ferguson yesterday Dec. 23rd 

From NY Daily News

An outraged crowd of about 60 people gathered behind police crime scene tape early Wednesday morning as the body of Antonio Martin, 18, lay in the parking lot in front of the Mobil on North Hanley Rd for more than two hours, according to eyewitness reports.

Police allege that Martin drew a handgun on the officer as he approached during a routine patrol. Witnesses saw a weapon at the scene next to the body.

 The officer fired several shots, fatally wounding him, according to the St. Louis County Police Department.

Fearing for his life, the Berkeley Officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him," police said. "The second subject fled the scene."

 Toni Martin, the victim’s mother, said her son was with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

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Man Survives Bear Attack By Grabbing Its Tongue

A man who survived a bear attack was in no mood to let the bear talk its way out of the situation.
Gilles Cyr of New Brunswick, Canada said a black bear came charging out of the woods towards him, CBC reported.
Cyr was on his woodlot in Grands Falls when the bear attacked.
In a moment of furry, Cyr’s instinct took over, and he grabbed the bear’s tongue.

“When I opened up my eyes it was on top of me – with the friggin’ noise, it’s crazy the way it growls,” Cyr said. “Right from the stomach. It’s not from the mouth, it’s just inside. His mouth was wide open right in front of my face so the last thing I remember I had his tongue in my hand and I didn’t want to let go because he was trying to fight me off. So he was hitting me with his claws, so I said, ‘If you’re going to hurt me, I’m going to hurt you too.’ So he was biting his tongue at the same time,” said Cyr.
Cyr suffered minor injuries, including scratches on his stomach and a bite mark on his knee. The man escaped behind a tree and the bear eventually lost interest and walked away, according to Canada.com.
The survivor also got permission from a warden to track down the animal and kill it. Ontario’s black bear population has grown from 12,000 to 17,000 in eight years, due in part to a drop in hunting the population.
Though black bears aren’t normally aggressive, encountering an aggressive bear can be incredibly dangerous. In August, 12-year-old Michigan girl Abigail Wetherell successfully fought off a black bear that began to maul her. Abigail eventually played dead and the bear lost interest

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Students Get iPads For Classroom, Play Video Games Instead

It will only be appropriate to give school officials in Los Angeles credit for a good idea; putting iPads in the hands of over 650,000 students.
The plan – to give them the most advanced learning tools available in an effort to boost their interest in academics. But same [the $1 billion plan] seems to have cropped up debates, after students in the nation’s second-largest school district cracked the tablets’ security settings – forgoing reading, writing and ‘rithmetic – and prefer to post on Facebook and play games during class time.
“They kind of should have known this would happen,” said Maria Aguilera, a student at one of the schools where games briefly replaced academia. “We’re high school students after all. I mean, come on.”
The top game choices? Temple Run, Subway Surfing and an unnamed car racing game.

The program’s goal is to put an iPad in the hands of every student and teacher in the district’s 1,000 schools by next year. Officials say they were hoping to assist students in a district where 80 percent of the students come from low-income families.
While some might shrug their shoulders and give the kids credit for pulling a fast one on officials, others are taking on the Los Angeles Unified School District for trying to do, too fast.
“It doesn’t seem like there was much planning that went into this strategy,” said Renee Hobbs, director of the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island.
Apple has worked with several school districts around the country to incorporate the iPad into the classroom.

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Kenyan massacre: Body of white woman terrorist found at scene after final assault

Has British 'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite, suspected to be the leader of the Islamic terrorists that attacked Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday September 21st, been killed?

It was claimed yesterday that the terror attack in Kenya was being led by Samantha, the widow of one of the 7/7 bombers, Jermaine Lindsay, who with 3 others killed 52 people in a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in London using the public transport system during the morning rush hour in 2005.

Soldiers said a white woman wearing a veil was shouting orders to gunmen in Arabic during the bloody massacre inside the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi on Saturday.

Samantha may have been killed today as a dead white woman was found among Islamic terrorists killed by soldiers as they stormed the mall this evening. Kenyan authorities haven't confirmed that the woman is really Samantha. Her name was first linked to the attack after Al Shabaab praised her on their Twitter account for leading the attack at Westgate mall.

Moments after the news of Samantha's demise broke, Al Shabaab, took to Twitter to claim that she's safe. Eleven soldiers were also wounded in the fight with the terrorists this evening. Kenyan police said that more than 200 civilians were rescued as troops took control of all the floors of the mall.

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Photos: President Jonathan and Obama in New York

President Goodluck Jonathan being received by President Barack Obama of the US at the Waldorf Hotel, New York today Monday September 23rd. More photos after the cut...

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$270 million worth of cocaine found on Air France flight

30 colorful suitcases containing an amazing 1.3 tons of pure cocaine was found on an Air France flight on Wednesday September 11th. According to reports, the suitcases which weren't registered to any of the passengers on the plane, was discovered by French immigration officials on arrival of the flight from Venezuela. The suitcases which came from Caracas, were found on Sept. 11, but French authorities didn't publicize the find until this past weekend.

The estimated value of the narcotic was put at $270 million.

Yesterday, Venezuela's Public Ministry said that authorities have detained several people including 3  members of the National Guard in connection with the incident. A detailed investigation is currently going on.

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Kenyan mall ablaze as names of terrorists and victims are released

Kenyan special forces were today locked in a fight to the death with Islamic terrorists who have been barricaded inside a Nairobi mall with up to 40 hostages since Saturday.

Witnesses described hearing four large explosions at the Westgate Shopping Centre followed by fierce gun fire after the military tried to break the three day siege by gaining access from the roof. 

It is feared that some of the gunmen inside may have blown themselves up, though a Kenyan government minister said that militants had set fire to some mattresses in a supermarket as a decoy.

Update: It's been confirmed that the terrorists didn't blow themselves up, they set ablaze mattresses they got from one of the supermarkets in the mall, as a diversion. The terrorists have been corned in one of the rooms inside the mall. Continue...

Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said that two of the terrorists had been killed and that most hostages were now free. All of the militants were men, he added, although some were dressed as women. So far, 69 people have been confirmed dead. At least 175 were injured, including children. 

A top military official said he believes the attackers are 'a multinational collection from all over the world.'

Kenya Chief of Defence forces General Julius Karangi said fighters from an array of nations participated in the attack claimed by Al Shabaab, a Somali group allies with al-Qaida. 

'We have an idea who this people are and they are clearly a multinational collection from all over the world,' he said. We have an idea who they are, their nationality and even the number.  We are fighting global terrorism here and we have sufficient intel (intelligence) to suggest that.'

A Twitter account claiming to represent Al Shabaab yesterday claimed that terrorists from seven nations are involved in the attack, including the U.S., Britain and Canada. 

The HSM Press Office account, which has been suspended twice, claimed the group were:

Names of alleged terrorists
Ahmed Nasir Shirdoon, 24, from London, UK; 
Gen Mustafe Noorduiin, 27, from Kansas City, U.S., 
Abdifatah Osman Keenadiid, 24, from Minneapolis, U.S., 
Ahmed Mohamad Isse, 22, from Saint Paul, U.S; 
Ismael Guled, 23, from Finland; 
Abdirizak Mouled, 24, from Ontario, Canada; 
Zaki Jama Caraale, 20, and Sayid Nuh, 25, both from Somalia. 

Police chief David Kimaiyo said today that some hostages have been freed. However, a group claiming to represent the Al Shabaab terrorists said they are still fighting inside the building. 

Names of victims
KENYA
President Uhuru Kenyatta's nephew and nephew's fiancee were killed

GHANA
Kofi Awoonor, a Ghanaian poet, professor and former ambassador to Brazil, Cuba and the United Nations, died after being wounded in the attack, Ghana's presidential office confirmed.

Ghana's ministry of information said Awoonor's son was injured and is responding to treatment.

CANADA
Two Canadians, including a diplomat, died in the attack, according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

He paid tribute to the victims and noted the loss of diplomat Annemarie Desloges, who served in Canada's High Commission to Kenya as a liaison officer with the Canada Border Services Agency.

Her spouse Robert Munk was wounded in the attack, but has since been released from the hospital, the Canadian Press reported.

INDIA
Two Indians, 8-year-old Parmashu Jain and 40-year-old Sridhar Natarajan, were killed, and four others were wounded in the attack.

BRITAIN
The Foreign Office have confirmed that four UK nationals have been killed in the attack.

Prize-winning architect Ross Langdon, who had dual British and Australian citizenship, is believed to be one of the dead.

A British man, who refused to give his name, said his wife and daughter were both killed in the atrocity.

The Foreign Office warned the number of British dead is 'likely to rise as further information becomes available.'

FRANCE
Two French women were killed, President Francois Hollande said.

SOUTH AFRICA
One South African citizen was killed, according to the country's International Relations Department.

THE NETHERLANDS
A 33-year-old Dutch woman died in the attack, believed to be Elif Yavuz, the heavily pregnant partner of British architect Mr Langdon.

Seven other Dutch citizens who were in the mall escaped unharmed, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said.

CHINA
A 38-year-old Chinese woman with the surname Zhou who worked in the real estate industry was killed in the attack, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. Her son was injured in the attack and was in stable condition in a hospital, according to the Chinese Embassy in Kenya.

PERU
A retired staff member of UNICEF from Peru was killed, the agency's regional office for Eastern and Southern Africa said.

U.S.
Five American citizens were injured, U.S. officials said.

NEW ZEALAND
Andrew McLaren, 34, a New Zealander who managed a factory in Kenya for the avocado oil company Olivado, was wounded in the attack, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed. He was hospitalised in stable condition.

 

 

 Source: UK Daily Mail

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11-Yr-Old Boy Shot Dead For Not Washing Plates

A 11-year-old Dalit* child labourer was shot dead allegedly by a customer for refusing to wash plates at a roadside eatery in neighbouring Shamli district, according to police, India.

The accused man, whose name Jagpal had gone to the eatery to have his food yesterday and asked the boy to wash plates for him.
The child victim, who worked at the eatery refused to do so, following which the man shot at him, Deputy Superintendent of Police Prakash Kumar told reporters today.
Police has registered a case against Jagpal under sections of the IPC as well as the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in this connection.
While the accused is absconding, the body of the victim has been sent for a post-mortem, police said.
*Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous social groups from all over India, they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions.
There are many different names proposed for defining this group of people, including Panchamas ("fifth varna"), and Asprushya ("untouchables").
READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/45551.html

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Shocking Images: Passenger In Car Crash (Pictured) With Head Trapped In Windscreen In Miracle Escape

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES. The woman above – who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt – was propelled forwards in the crash.
A passenger miraculously survived a horrific car crash despite her head smashing through the windscreen.
The car crashed into the back of a lorry and the woman – who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt – was propelled forwards.
Her head broke through the glass and she became trapped in the accident in Guizhou in southern China.
Firefighters first removed the unconscious male driver before carefully enlarging the hole around the woman’s neck so she could be pulled free.
Amazingly, according to doctors, both the passenger and driver are out of danger and recovering in hospital.
Lesson: Always use your seat belt!

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